My Martin Amis

Episodes

1. "Are there any ugly women that Amis affords full humanity? I'm not convinced." Leon Craig

   26 Jun 2026 · 52 min

   Leon Craig's debut novel The Decadence was published in September of 2025, with the paperback due to be published in August 2026. She speaks to Jack Aldane about Amis's 2010 novel The Pregnant Widow, a complex…

2. "When you don't win The Booker, you know it's alright, because Amis didn't either." Kevin Power

   6 May 2026 · 55 min

   Many a male Amis reader owes his smoking habit to the author. The novelist Kevin Power is one who thought he'd quit for good, until he spotted Amis and Isabel Fonseca walking on the grounds of Ireland's prestigious…

3. "I wish Amis's Substack was landing in my inbox today." George Monaghan and Nicholas Harris

   14 Mar 2026 · 37 min

   For this episode of My Martin Amis, we're plugging into the London recording studio of the New Statesman magazine. From the intro: "Founded by economists and social reformers Sidney and Beatrice Webb and the Irish…

4. "Amis's talent was to put words to things in ways both unobvious and inevitable." David Szalay

   12 Feb 2026 · 44 min

   David Szalay won the Booker Prize for his sixth novel Flesh in 2025. In this tense, spare, frictionless work of fiction, he drip feeds us the story of the laconic male protagonist Istvan, who spends his youth in a…

5. "Every page of London Fields has a sense of an author in absolute command." Rob Doyle

   23 Jan 2026 · 51 min

   In the basement room of an East London flat one rainy January morning, Jack sat down with the Irish writer Rob Doyle to discuss the publication of his third novel, Cameo, and delve into his long and complex love for…

6. "I went to pick him up at Manchester Piccadilly Station and...he was doing Pilates." John McAuliffe and Ian McGuire

   3 Sep 2025 · 51 min

   This episode takes Jack Aldane to Manchester, where he meets two men who knew Martin Amis in a rather unique setting. Ian McGuire and John McAuliffe, both esteemed authors, are the co-founders of The Centre for New…

7. "Amis wrote with precision of judgement, of observation, and with great linguistic ingenuity." Geoff Dyer

   5 Aug 2025 · 45 min

   In this episode, Jack sits down with the award-winning author and novelist Geoff Dyer at his home to discuss the Good Book of Mart (as distinct from the Big Book of Mart), AKA The War Against Cliché. Geoff recalls his…

8. "I hope writers today can rediscover the verve and energy of Martin Amis." Ross Barkan

   18 Jul 2025 · 48 min

   Ross Barkan is a 35 year-old American journalist and novelist from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. His third novel, Glass Century, was published on 6 May 2025. On a semi-vacation to London this summer, Ross and Jack met to speak…

9. "The Zone of Interest records the greatest phraselet in the English language." Vincenzo Barney

   6 May 2025 · 39 min

   Vincenzo Barney travelled all the way from Massachusetts to join a panel of eight speakers at the My Martin Amis LIVE show in March this year. If you haven't listened to it already, do go back and hit play. Since…

10. My Martin Amis LIVE - Sunday 23 March, 2025

    5 Apr 2025 · 1 h 41 min

    On Sunday 23 March 2025, listeners of the podcast gathered in Central London to watch a live Amisathon, featuring 8 panellists and the show's host. The panel included former guests as well as a couple of new faces:…

11. "I should've gone to lunch with Martin Amis, because by that point I loved him." Carol Morley

    24 Jan 2025 · 1 h 05 min

    Martin Amis's 1997 novel Night Train followed a trifecta of bestsellers: Money, London Fields and The Information. Written as a dark parody of the noir genre, Night Train follows female detective Mike Hoolihan on an…

12. "He opened the door, holding three darts. Amis was quite mischievous." Anthony Quinn

    2 Dec 2024 · 52 min

    English novelist Anthony Quinn has met and interviewed Martin Amis on several occasions. Their first encounter followed the publication of London Fields in 1989, the second during the publicity storm that came with…

13. "Martin Amis makes you alive to the possibilities of prose." David Patrikarakos

    13 Sep 2024 · 44 min

    British author, journalist and war correspondent David Patrikarakos was due to leave the UK for Athens in the summer of 2024. Before he left, he discovered My Martin Amis, and quickly got in touch to ask to tell his…

14. "Amis's prose is sparkling, relatable, aspirational, and authentic." Simon Parkin

    20 Aug 2024 · 44 min

    On this episode, British journalist, author and video game critic for The Observer Simon Parkin reaches into the more obscure corners of Amis's bibliography to dissect a dazzling collection of arcade game reviews…

15. "Amis is one of the best writers of dialogue." John Niven

    30 Jun 2024 · 45 min

    John Niven is a Scottish author and screenwriter whose books include Kill Your Friends, The Amateurs, The Second Coming. The F*ck-it List, and O Brother. John discusses his favourite of Amis's novel, The Information,…

16. "When he died, I was distraught. Only Amis could have that effect on me." Will Lloyd

    21 May 2024 · 49 min

    Reporter for The Sunday Times Will Lloyd sits down with Jack Aldane on this ninth episode to discuss The Second Plane, a collection of twelve pieces of nonfiction and two short stories by Amis published in 2008,…

17. "Reading Money was like hearing The Clash for the first time." Graham Caveney

    25 Mar 2024 · 45 min

    Journalist and memoirist Graham Caveney speaks to Jack Aldane on this eighth episode of the series about Martin Amis's iconoclastic fifth novel Money: A Suicide Note. He and the host discuss the novel's true subject,…

18. "Amis is at his best when he leans into his fears." Leo Robson

    26 Feb 2024 · 34 min

    Leo Robson is a freelance writer whose work has featured in The New Yorker, Harpers and New Statesman, among others. In this episode, he and the series' host and producer Jack Aldane sit down to discuss Martin Amis's…

19. "Reading Martin Amis makes you feel funnier, cleverer, more insightful." Alys Denby

    8 Jan 2024 · 34 min

    Editor of Cap X Alys Denby discovered Martin Amis through a boy at university would she would later go on to marry. The first book of Amis's he leant her was Success, published in 1978. Success juxtaposes two lives…

20. "Nobody has influenced my writing more than Martin Amis." James Marriott

    24 Nov 2023 · 41 min

    Columnist, podcast and book reviewer for The London Times James Marriott joins Jack Aldane on Episode 5 to discuss The War Against Cliché , an anthology of Martin Amis's reviews and essays from 1971 to 2000. It was the…

21. "Not everyone even remotely has Amis's descriptive ability." Zoe Strimpel

    20 Oct 2023 · 46 min

    Gender scholar, author and columnist Zoe Strimpel tells Jack Aldane about the "sexual sentimental education" she gleaned from Martin Amis’s novels as a young woman battling teenage angst. In particular, they discuss…

22. "You have to get into Amis, and you have to get past Amis." Janan Ganesh

    4 Sep 2023 · 1 h 03 min

    Columnist for The Financial Times Janan Ganesh, speaks to Jack Aldane about the London he grew up in during the early 90s, and which is captured in one of Martin Amis's most celebrated novels, London Fields. Janan…

23. "I should have kept that cigarette butt." Sam Leith

    31 Jul 2023 · 50 min

    Author, journalist and literary editor for The Spectator, Sam Leith, tells Jack Aldane his story of meeting (and smoking with) Martin Amis, his reflections on Amis's lifelong role as "media whipping boy", and why he…

24. "For my generation, he filled the skyline." Matt d'Ancona

    30 Jun 2023 · 35 min

    Author, award-winning columnist and Editor at Large for The New European, Matt d'Ancona, tells the show's host Jack Aldane his story of discovering Martin Amis in the heady 1980s as one of a generation of what he calls…

25. Welcome to My Martin Amis with Jack Aldane

    14 Jun 2023 · 1:39 · Trailer

    In My Martin Amis, British journalist and host of The Booking Club podcast Jack Aldane talks to writers, critics and publicists who have something personal to say about the life and legacy of the last English novelist…